Thanks, Obama!

Jana Nawartschi wasn’t the first actor we hired, that was Lee Simonds who read the role of Stanfield at the table read last year, but she was the first one we hired from the auditions back in March. She was the first lead and was totally and completely phenomenal and proved it every day on the set. Have you hired her for your next movie yet? Seriously, you should. Anyway, she’s actually German, living in LA on a work visa.

Not anymore.

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I guess INS wouldn’t extend her visa because she couldn’t prove that she had achieved a level of acclaim in the business that the government would accept, like, winning an Oscar™. Here’s a Pro Tip, Jana: They don’t know what one looks like. Problem solved. Anyway, so that was that and she had to jump on a plane back to… where is she from anyway? Let me look it up. Hold on.









I guess she lives in Bielefeld. I just held my thumb up to Google Maps, so if I compare it to California, she’s from the Bakersfield of Germany. Maybe not. I only have a 15” screen and it’s not Retina. No, wait, it is. Thanks, Tim Cook!

Anyway, yeah, so the “Clocking The T” Good Luck Train keeps a rollin’. The funny thing is that Erika and I had floated the possibility that there might be visa probs down the line when we met her and we just shrugged it off. Honestly, we wouldn’t have decided any differently if she told us that the last shot of production would have to be in front of the Daily Grill at the Tom Bradley International building at LAX because she had to go through the security check for her flight home right after the martini shot. She’s that good. You know those stories about actors who go to auditions and Own The Role? Yeah, it was exactly like that. The only reason we didn’t give her the job there and then was because we didn’t want to look even bush leaguier (sp?) than we already were. Instead we spent a nail biting weekend waiting for her to read the script and get back to us. The high we felt when she came onboard lasted all the way until the very first shot on the very first day of production when I suddenly realized I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. But that’s another blog post.

I’m sure if this was a studio picture they’d take the cigar from their mouth long enough to speed dial a senator they make ‘campaign donations’ to and tell him to Make It Happen. Her visa problems would disappear so fast the First AD wouldn’t even have to open up Movie Magic scheduling. I’m pretty sure. Isn’t that what studio people do? That and power lunches and cocaine? I read that once in People Magazine. Henry Winkler was on the cover. I dunno, I’m not really in the business.

Hopefully she'll get her work permit reinstated and soon. Otherwise, we are #boned. At the rate this production is going, she’s going to be elderly in the pick up shots.

P.S. I just realized Google Maps has a zoom slider, so, going by my thumb, she might be in the Madison, Wisconsin of Germany or just across the street. Frankly, I’m confused. Thanks, Larry & Sergey!




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